Dan and Jessica begin a debate about the value of the sequel. Plus more Marvel movie news, and the DVD pick of the week.

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The Radio Dan Show: The Trouble with Sequels

This past weekend I finished it.  I watched all of Iron Man in its entirety.   Granted most of you out there have already seen it twice by now, but you will have to remember that my first go round with Tony Stark ended prematurely when my daughter decided that Iron Man was not kid friendly enough for her. 

So two weekends in, here is my Iron Man review.

Kick starting the summer a full six weeks before the actual season of summer begins, here comes Iron Man, the latest Marvel comics adaptation to find it’s way to the big screen. 

While we’ve had other Marvel adaptations recently (2007’s Spider-Man 3being the last one) this is the first one that the comic company has produced themselves.   With Marvel now driving the bus they can lead into these characters crossing over into each others movies.  Where as before Spider-Man and X-Men lived in different worlds, now going forward you’ll have characters bumping into each other at the supermarket.

Iron Man is the story of billionaire weapons maker Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) who has a change of heart regarding his chosen profession.  Stark is living the highlife as a bombmaker and playboy until he’s captured by terrorists in Afganistan.  The lock him up in a cave and force him to build a bomb for them.   Stark instead builds a suit of iron and uses it to kick a lot of butt.

Seeing how the terrorists were using the weapons he created Stark decideds that maybe weapons isn’t the right career path.  When stops all production of weapons in his company things get a little nutty.  Mentor and partner Obidiah Stane (Jeff Bridges), his admin assistant extrordiaire (Gweneth Paltrow) and government issued sidekick (Terrence Howard) all think Stark has lost his mind.  When he refines his armor to destroy all the terrorist weapons that his company has illegally sold, well that’s when things really get interesting.

I could tell you that Iron Man is best Marvel film since Spider-Man 2, but that was only four years ago, not 40.  So instead I will tell you that Iron Man is a fun summer movie with enough action and a surprising amount of chrachter to set itself apart.

Robert Downey, Jr. takes the role of Tony Stark and molds it around himself.  This is the kick of smartass role Downey has owned in the past and this time around it fits him like a glove.   The rest of the big name cast (Bridges, Paltrow, and Howard) all have considerably less to do here.  Though it is indicated that Howard may be getting some of the workload himself in Iron Man 2 (already lined up for 2010, the line forms next week).  

Also be sure to stick around for a quick scene after the end credits.  Don’t you hate missing out on those?  Now you’re hip.

New show episode of The Radio Dan Show.

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The Radio Dan Show: Do You Even Like Movies?

Jessica is still in Arkansas, PHD Guy calls in, and a caller questions whether or not I even like movies at all.  Madness!

- Dan

Hi everyone, I posted an episode to my podcast, The Radio Dan Show.

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The Radio Dan Show: Now Youve Gone Too Far

Hi everyone, I posted an episode to my podcast, The Radio Dan Show.

Click this link to check it out:
The Radio Dan Show: Marvel-ous Plans

I had already written something to the extent of my daughter and perhaps kids in general being able to handle certain movies better than I had thought.  Well…

Sure Beetlejuice went over big a few days ago on the Friday movie night we have going.  But I have to tell you, Iron Man does not fall into this category.   I brought my nine year old daughter to the movies expecting fun good times.  After all she had handled all three Spider-Man movies with no problems.  In fact I had even read in one of the blogs that I use to help me come up with topics for the radio show that if your kid handled movies like  Raiders of the Lost Ark then you’d be okay in bringing your kid along.

Well, that sounds like my kid!  She sure did see those other movies.  She sure did love watching them too.  However Iron Man is where the love ends.  While I was enjoying this movie, it was scaring the hell out of my kid.  It opens with charismatic Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) driving along in a military caravan and yukking it up with some American soldiers when an attack happens and everyone but Stark is killed.  He then finds himself in a cave being treated not so nicely by some Afghan insurgents.   And to be honest, these were not your typical bad guys.  The looked and acted like real bad guys, not movie bad guys.  It was here that Iron Man lost Alexa as a viewer and I don’t think she trusted the movie after that.  In fact when Iron Man runs into those insurgents later on in the film she was lost for good.  Hiding from the screen and with tears in here eyes I could not in good conscious continue to let her watch the film. 

So even though it was kick ass good times for me, I let it go and we left early.   When I was five years old or so I had a similar experience with The Empire Strikes Back.  Fortunately the scarring from the film was not permanent and I’m guessing that will be the case here.  So I will get to see Iron Man with Alexa after all.  I just have to wait until 2015.